How Home Depot Helps Creators Get More Done (HBBIP #125)

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I know that you mainly read this newsletter for the creator economy learnings, but do you have a moment to read about my home improvement journey?

If you don’t, feel free to scroll down a little, or hey, even close this blog post and come back later. But I promise you that these threads will tie together, and I will at least try to make the resulting tapestry worth your while.

As I’ve discussed previously, I’m in the midst of a renaissance, living space-wise, in that I am now paying attention to the space I live in. Apart from decor (that sponsorship check from HomeGoods is in the mail, I’m sure of it), this newfound attention entails a lot of DIY. All of a sudden, I’m grappling with pictures to hang, pipes to clean, and furniture assembly that goes a bit further than matching pegs to holes.

In short, I’m doing a lot of stuff. I am one who does. A doer, even. And while I might not know the correct name for every last screwdriver in the set I just bought (there’s the little one, the less-little one, the big one, the less-big one—gang’s all here), I know that I will put them to good use eventually. But how?

Fortunately for me, and a lot of other home-conscious consumers, there’s a place for us. Some might even call it a depot.

The Top Brand  of All Time (of the Week): Home Depot

A repository for all things home improvement, Home Depot has long been a trusted authority for people who would rather do things themselves, hence the company slogan that I’ve been dancing around for the last few paragraphs: how doers get more done.

But according to the numbers, Home Depot has also been running an effective side-gig over the last several years. More and more, Home Depot is becoming how creators…create more.

Alright, so I wouldn’t pitch that to the Home Depot marketing team, who clearly doesn’t need my help anyway. But the sentiment is valid. Let’s prove it by taking a look at the numbers.

Home Depot Creator Count, 2020 - 2025

As with other brands we’ve covered recently, Home Depot saw a bit of a decline from 2020 to 2022, then recovered impressively. Over the past six years, the brand has roughly doubled the number of global creators mentioning it, in turn yielding growth amongst other metrics.

Home Depot Post Count, 2020 - 2025

We see a pretty similar trajectory here: that soft dip, followed by an impressive rebound. Note that Home Depot’s surge in post count from 2024 to 2025 is slightly more pronounced than its surge in creator count during those same years—an indication that the brand is finding the right creators to post about it, rather than just finding more creators.

Home Depot EMV, 2020 - 2025

With EMV, the picture changes considerably. Gone is that dip circa 2022; instead, we see uninterrupted, accelerating growth. From 2020 to 2025, Home Depot increased its Earned Media Value (EMV) by more than 4x, further underscoring that the brand’s success didn’t stem from raw volume of creators or content, but how deeply Home Depot resonated with audiences on social.

Home Depot Engagements, 2020 - 2025

But here the picture changes yet again. At first, engagements seems to be set up on the same track as its sister metric, EMV. Then along comes 2025, and Home Depot experiences a mild 11% YoY decline in engagements.

This is another trend we’ve seen recently across multiple brands, so Home Depot is hardly alone here. It speaks to the challenge of capturing audiences’ attention in an increasingly fractured media ecosystem.

Home Depot Impressions, 2020 - 2025

Did I say “audiences’ attention?” Scratch that, because as we can see from this chart of Home Depot’s impressions, the brand is pretty good at drawing eyes. An 8x increase in impressions over the course of six years bears that out well enough. So maybe the engagements gap indicates something deeper than attention, and harder to define: affinity.

When we try to get to the bottom of that affinity puzzle, it helps to start with channel activity.

Home Depot Share of Engagements by Platform, 2025

As we might expect, Instagram fueled a majority of Home Depot’s engagements in 2025. But the YoY growth numbers tell a pretty stark story:

• Instagram engagements, YoY change: -12%
• TikTok engagements, YoY change: 4%
• YouTube engagements, YoY change: 104%

Small but mighty, YouTube is positively booming when it comes to engagements, while Instagram is sliding and TikTok is just about breaking even.

Home Depot Share of Impressions by Platform, 2025

Impressions finds YouTube taking up a notably larger share of the pie, eating into proportions for both TikTok and Instagram. But do the growth rates match what we saw for engagements?

• Instagram impressions, YoY change: +6%
• TikTok impressions, YoY change: -28%
• YouTube impressions, YoY change: +201%

Well, they do and they don’t. Instagram shows a bit of pop, TikTok is down bad, but the main point holds true: YouTube is fueling considerable growth.

What’s behind that momentum, and Home Depot’s creator marketing program more generally?

As you might expect, Home Depot is largely buoyed by DIY content, featuring expert creators modeling home projects and showing their followers how to achieve ideal results. While I initially didn’t foresee the link between this genre and YouTube, once I started paying attention to my living space, it all made sense. These projects take time. While TikTok and Instagram have their purposes for quick hits and short bursts of entertainment, many DIY creators have carved out a niche for themselves via somewhat longer-form content.

Take Home RenoVision DIY, a YouTube channel run by contractor Jeff Thorman. On this channel, Jeff shows his 4M subscribers how to do everything from how to pour a concrete pad that will NEVER FAIL to how to repair your damaged drywall corner the RIGHT WAY. (Jeff is big on all caps, but fair play to him, because he’s doing some IMPRESSIVE STUFF.)

While Jeff is a Lowe’s partner, he’s also got a Home Depot storefront that he mentions in the description section of every YouTube video. The result? $6.1M EMV via 164 posts as Home Depot’s top 2025 EMV-driver. This total was not only nearly twice as much as the brand’s next-highest earner (on any channel), but up from Jeff’s own $1.7M EMV via 87 posts mentioning Home Depot in 2024.

When you combine Jeff’s prolific advocacy with consistent mentions from 731 Woodworks, a carpentry and home improvement creator who frequently spotlights savings and favorite products at Home Depot, or Rize Studio, a tool-focused channel dedicated to the aesthetically pleasing aspects of DIY, you have a potent, dedicated creator cohort. In an era where people long to work with their hands and save money, it makes perfect sense that DIY content is taking off on YouTube. What it doesn’t drive in engagements, it more than makes up for in impressions.

One thing I love about these creators? I didn’t know they were out there doing their thing. As with other recent niche discoveries, like water bottle aficionados or grocery store stans, I’ve learned once again that the creator economy is even wider than it seems, and that there are all kinds of cool communities out there, sharing their passions with the world.

Another thing I love about these creators? Plenty of tips for my damaged drywall corner. Time to go FIX THAT.

*All data, unless otherwise specified, stems from CreatorIQ's public-facing brand leaderboards. We will never share performance metrics from a customer's CreatorIQ profile, or any brand's private information.

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